College of Central Florida Top Questions

Ones personality and self understanding are important when making the transition from highschool student, to college student. Personally, I would tell myself to be more assertive. Its not always an easy transition to make, especially when realizing that no ones going to hold your hand. In highschool, my teachers, advisors, and family were always there to make the hard choices for me. The truth is, I hate making decisions, and thats all I'm doing now that I'm in college! Serious issues that I personally never even considered before, started to arise such as financial aid (what, I have to pay?), and choosing a major (I just want to be a cool doctor!), and deciding which classes to take and in what order (how about I take all the easy classes now and the hard ones later....). I honestly made alot of mistakes along the road. Especially, the taking the hard classes at the end(yikes!). So, if I could talk to my young, nieve self, I would say, "Jessica, actually do some research on college! Apply for a scholarship, know whats expected of you, and dont wait until the last semester to take five, 4 credit classes!

If I had the chance to go back in time and talk to myself about college and everything that comes into play with classes, books, teachers, and just general knowledge about the schools that are out there, I would have told myself to become very familiar with everything that I possibly could about each school. To look into the programs that they have, the types of classes they offered, and to become more familiar with the way their admissions office worked. All of these details are very important and as a senior in high school, a lot of times your guidance counselor doesn't prepare you quite as well as they think they have. There is a lot more that goes into even the application process than people expect so it is very important to do as much research as possible!

If I had the opportunity to go back and talk with myself as a high school senior getting ready to transition into the college life I would tell myself that all the responsablity belongs to me, I am held accountable for everything. I would also tell myself that the first year in college is the easiest one to lose focus in because of the new feeling of freedom that it comes with, but it is also a very important year because, if you start out poorly then you are creating a hole that you will eventually have to dig yourself out of, but if you start out doing well, then you are setting that standard and level of studying for yourself. So, if Icould go back and advise myself or any other high school senior on the transition, I would tell them to work hard, stay focus, and do not let this new found freedom interfere and hinder the education that your paying for.

If I could go back in time and talk to myself as a high school senior, I would make sure to stress the importance and seriousness of the entire college experience. I would reinforce my idea that college is a very big social networking environment and the opportunity to experience independence. However, I would also relate the fact that attending college is a privilege and is not to be taken lightly. I would assert myself and encourage myself that I could not only succeed but excel. It only takes motivation, encouragement, persistence, and resilience. I would insist that I develop good study habits and learn to manage my time. Overall, I think the most important thing I would try to relate is that transitioning to college is not something to be frightened of. It is a time to rejoice in your accomplishments and look forward to bigger challenges and better achievements as you map your road to success as you define it.

I would tell myself that it is far more important to finish school and have a well established career before even thinking about marriage and children. I would tell myself to enjoy the experience and not to worry so much about growing up too fast.

Develop and exercise a study plan and good focusing habits to prepare for exams. Make more time to get better informed about all the universities out there. Use all the recourses available for scholarship opportunities, even as little as it might seem it all helps in the end. Enjoy every moment because it will not occur again. Cultivate all the true friendships and let go of all the unnecessary in life. Do not make things harder than what they have to be. Try to see the big picture of things and always planned a head in life. Do not dull on things going the other way just move on and try to avoid the same obstacles in life. Everything s comes in time so do not be so rushed to grow up and do big people things because with more freedom comes more responsibilities. Try to understand parents more and if it?s still hard, just put yourself in their shoes and try to imagine how hard it truly is. Life and breath every moment like was the last cause honestly is really is.

The advice I would give myself prior to going into college would be to be sure to have fun and enjoy my classes. This is the chance you have to become who you will be for the rest of your life. Make it what you want it to be. You will get a lot of learning from the classroom, but even more of your life learning will be from interacting with other students outside of school. You will learn by seeing other peoples' mistakes and how they handle them. The most important piece of advice is to have fun discovering who you are and what you want to become!